Technology Trader

Secondary Stock Offerings Keep Questionable Techs Afloat

For some companies, finding money on Wall Street is easier than finding revenue for their businesses.

Short-sellers had a rough 2013 in a surging market for stocks. Some of that is overall exuberance for the new, new thing in technology—think 3-D printing—that can sustain a stock's momentum indefinitely. But there's another factor that can also keep shares aloft: the willingness of capital markets to give these companies money again and again. I've been reviewing a decade's worth of follow-on stock offerings by information technology companies based in the U.S.—793 deals, to be exact—which raised $77 billion for 470...